Liberia: Unidentified disease causes dozens of victims

An initial report reveals twelve deaths in less than ten days. This disease causes fever and vomiting and WHO tries to identify it.Concern grew in Liberia. After the end of the Ebola epidemic, a little less than a year ago, a new disease appeared in the south-east of the country and in the capital, Monrovia. Twelve

people died in less than ten days, according to the Liberian Ministry of Health on Tuesday. From Geneva, the World Health Organization (WHO) also reported on Tuesday new cases of this unknown disease whose first patients were registered in the province of Sinoe in south-eastern Liberia.
Analyzes were underway to identify the disease, tested negative to Ebola and Lassa fever viruses, according to WHO and the Liberian authorities. "There have been two more cases that have been reported," said a WHO spokesperson, Tarik Jasarevic, "the global assessment is now 21 people who have been sick, 12 of whom have died since Sunday, April 23. In Monrovia, Liberian Health Ministry spokesman Sorbor George also spoke of twelve deaths among patients who have been diagnosed since the onset of symptoms in Greenville, the capital of Sinoe province.

A country already bruised by Ebola
He also claimed that the disease had reached Monrovia. "A man came from Sinoe to attend a funeral in Monrovia and he got sick. He showed the same symptoms" as the cases recorded in Sinoe County, "and later he died," his girlfriend Also died following the same pattern, explained George. According to him, the open epidemiological investigation to identify the disease continued, the first analyzes having ruled out the presence of Ebola virus and Lassa fever. Blood samples taken from patients "were sent to Atlanta in the US It will take a few weeks to identify the disease," he said.
"All of the samples tested were negative for Ebola and Lassa fevers," and samples were sent to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta "for toxicological analyzes," Tarik Jasarevic said. WHO. Health investigators have been deployed to determine a potential link with patients, some of whom recently attended the funeral of a religious leader. Liberia is among the three countries severely affected by Ebola in West Africa between 2013 and 2016. The epidemic was reported to have been terminated in the region in June 2016, after more than 11,300 deaths, more than 99% Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

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